By now, we have all seen the horrifying videos of a female high school student in South Carolina being thrown around like a rag doll by a school resource officer — now one of her classmates is speaking out and claiming this all happened because the teen was chewing gum in class.

https://youtu.be/Tq4BR5KHuqA

Aaron Johnson, a 10th grade student at Spring Valley High School, claims to have been present during the assault on a student by Richland County Senior Deputy Ben Fields. The student took to Twitter on Monday evening to dispel some rumors that were circulating following the footage going viral.

The videos, which trended globally on Facebook and Twitter on Monday evening with the hashtag #AssaultAtSpringValleyHigh, captured the teenage girl sitting at her desk in her classroom when Fields, 34, approaches and grabs her before wrapping his arm around her throat.

The media initially reported that the abuse came about because the teenager had been verbally disruptive in the classroom, but Johnson tells a far different tale. He has asserted that the violent response was over her chewing bubble gum in class.

The teacher was really quiet when discussing whatever she did. Whatever she did couldnt have been that bad because nobody knew what it was

Johnson spoke to Addicting Info about what we didn’t see in the videos, he provided a photo of his school identification card to verify that he is in fact a student at the South Carolina school.

“When I asked (their teacher) Mr. Long if he felt bad for what happened to her … his reply was ‘she should have cooperated.’” Johnson explained.

When we asked what she was doing to be asked to leave the classroom in the first place, Johnson stated that she had been sitting quietly at her desk and was suddenly ordered to leave by the teacher, Mr. Robert Long. He later found out it was because of the chewing gum.

He originally stated that it was “because she was very quiet,” then added, “I still don’t know why she was told to leave.”

The sophomore explained that following the vicious assault that had just taken place in front of the students, their teacher continued the class without addressing the violence or expressing any concern. Johnson explained:

“Some of the other students were frozen in shock, but a few students were trying to find out what was going on. The teacher seemed aloof after they left, considering he continued right on with the lesson.”

A male student who attempted to help the student was also arrested, local station WLTX reported. Johnson added:

“He put another girl in handcuffs for standing up, like standing up for the girl.”

The teen described feeling anxious and scared as it happened — emotions that schools should be protecting students from, not creating. He told Addicting Info:

“I was scared for her, and really anxious. Mainly I was just shocked that this was even happening.”

The sheriff’s department placed Fields on administrative duty following the incident and the school district announced on Monday evening that they have banned the deputy from returning to any school in the district pending the outcome of the investigation.